A day in Tangier

While we slept and spent lots of time in Assilah, we took advantage of the fact that it's located only 40 minutes from Tangier to explore that city a bit! I had never been there and Othman was very small the last time he was there. Not having a guide (his uncle who lives in Tangier was out of town) we ended up getting lost more than a few times, but were able to see quite a lot of the city as a result! Our first destination was in the old medina, and finding it was no easy task but we made it eventually. 

The walk in:

Then we got sidetracked...

and got our first view of Spain! It's that small dark line above the clouds.

Not long after that we found a museum which used to be an old palace. Wandering though it was impressive, as I imagined all that must have taken place within itsits walls. Othman and I agreed there was something distinctly Game-of-Thrones-esque about the place!

While the museum wasn't particularly well set up, and informative only in the driest of ways, the experience of walking through the palace and stumbling upon things like these was incredible:

Afterwards we followed some terrible signage looking for the tomb of Ibn Battuta (the Marco Polo of the Arab world, who happened to be from Tangier) but were disappointed to see it was just a little building the size of a shack that was dedicated to him. It was also locked. Then we realized we were extremely lost in the winding pedestrian streets of the old medina, but were saved by a guide in the form of a ten year old girl. Phew! I posed in front of this pretty wall on the way down:

Leaving the city we headed up to Cap Spartel which is in a large national park just minutes from Tangier. The cape features a historical lighthouse that we admired. Unfortunately the clouds were blocking most of the view we should have had of Spain and the Atlantic.

After grabbing a quick orange juice at the cafe overlooking the ocean we wandered around the park some more, spotting some wildlife:

And even the lighthouse again!

All tired out, we then headed back to Assilah for a well deserved rest.

The old medina of Assilah

Heading into our long weekend away in the north of Morocco, we decided to stay in Assilah for the three nights we'd be on vacation and use it as a base to visit Tangier and it's surrounding areas, it being smaller and quieter than the big city. I had heard Assilah was a beatiful town, but I wasn't quite prepared for how stunning its old medina would be. In most Moroccan cities the old medina, or old town, shows its age substantially by being dirty, cramped, and somewhat crumbly. Despite that they all have their charms hidden in labyrinthian passages. Assilah proved to be somewhat different from the others. 

In this post I will take you on a tour that is neither geographically nor chronologically sound, but is arranged with the object of unveiling the beauty of the town's old medina.

Heading into the medina means passing through its old and thick city ramparts that defended the town in days of old.

The walls themselves held surprises for us. Some of a soft and gentle nature,

and others rather more foreboding.

The architecture and colors it hid were often stunning, and the medina was surprisingly clean, bright and alive.

We were so pleased to see how the town has made a concerted effort to bring nature and plant life into the medina, which is so often lacking in other Moroccan old towns.

There was a fair amount of animal life as well, and it being a fishing village, well-fed cats abounded.

While all of that would be enough to make one love Assilah, it held one more wonderful secret. Around each bend and down each small alley a bright and striking mural, waiting to shout out its message and be seen by the world.

Some had messages for the onlookers,

while others were just a celebration.

They provided some nice photo ops,

for us and for others!

Many murals weren't just for their own sake, but advertised the locations of, for example, an art gallery and a calligraphy studio.

Not all of Assilah's charm lay in its lovely medina however. But more on that in future posts—for now I'm simply already wondering when we might be able to return.

Our turtle collection

Othman and I got back last night from a short trip to the north of Morocco. We needed a small vacation and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves staying in small but beautiful Assilah and visiting Tangier. It was my first time in both places and only my second time in the north, and it was lovely. I will be posting about the trip in the days/weeks to come but for now wanted to share two of the souvenirs we bought:

We both love turtles and tortoises and a while back I was gifted the figurine of a turtle. Othman's mom gave me a few more and said I should start a collection. Other than a rock collection I loved as a kid (and still have in a box at my parent's house!) I've never collected anything on purpose, but I decided—why not! (It also serves the purpose of being an easy gift for anyone to get me, haha.)

These turtles come from all sorts of places other than Tangier. One is from the Brookings Art Museum, another from its antique shop, then there's one from a keychain from India my dad gave me years ago, the tall one in the back is from the streets of Santa Fe via my mom, one is from a Christmas market in Toulouse, and the list goes on! About half were gifts and the other half we bought ourselves. I just need one from Brazil to complete my four continents! I love the stories behind them and their provenance, and their variety of shapes, sizes and colors—plus they make my bookshelf look cute.

Happy birthday B!

This post is to wish the happiest of birthdays to my dear, dear sister Maria today! The philosopher and writer of the family is turning 16 today and I just can’t believe it. 

She has turned into the most wonderful of people as well as the best of sisters! We had all sorts of fun being antisocial introverts together over my Christmas visit to the US: as the non-or-less introverted family members ventured to various parties we usually stayed home and watched movies or did art. It was fabulous to spend quality time with her and get to know her almost-adult self even more. I learned all sorts of things from her too, like that when you take a selfie and it's kind of wonky, just put it into black and white and BOOM—great photo.

See?

Bia was able to have a lovely birthday party a couple of weeks ago since she and her busy, busy friends wouldn’t have coinciding free weekends for a long time after today. You can read about it here on her blog. Now I'm just wondering how long it'll take her to get that driver's license—on the same day like me or months later like Isa?

Darling sisterly I hope that not only this day is as wonderful as you are, but also that this year brings all sorts of happiness and joy to your life! I love you!!

My lil sis singing Swift

Remember how in my first post I reserved the right to brag about my sisters whenever and wherever? I know it's not an uncommon occurence on the blog, and here I am doing it again.

My sister Isabel is part of an acappella group at her college, the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota's Twin Cities. Recently the group, Cadenza, recorded their very first music video!

Isa's solo is the shortest of the featured ones, but very unbiasedly I'm certain you'll agree it's the best. Just in case you have a hard time recognizing her (though why would you, given how often she appears here??) she's the gorgeous one in the scarf.

Here is our first ever music video!! We are so honored to have worked with Jack Hiniker and Michael Gaytko, as well as BAARD audio productions on this awesome project! We hope you like it :)
Posted by Cadenza on Thursday, March 26, 2015

Art, photography and friends!

A few weeks ago Othman and I had plans to join up with some friends of ours, another mixed-nationality couple, and have a picnic in a forest close to Casablanca. When I got sick the day beforeand thus had to cancel I became quite frustrated, as I was really looking forward to hanging out with them. Once I got better we started planning again, but due to the daily rain we've been getting here in Casa we had to come up with a different outing. I asked how they'd feel about heading to the new Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat that was inaugurated a few months ago, and they agreed on making a day of it! So yesterday the four of us piled into our car and headed to Morocco's capital city.

We met Gioia and Driss at the first Pages event we went to, at which she told the story of how she ended up here, and then he played music with his fantastic band. (They're mentioned in my first post about Pages here!) 

A very cool picture of Gioia from the next Pages event- when I spoke!
Photo cred

Since then we've kept in touch and seen each other a couple times, and really enjoy spending time together. With our busy lives it's difficult to make time to help friendships grow, but it really is so important, and is something I've been pushing Othman and me to do recently. Gone are those university days when you become friends with people easily and almost by default, spending most of your time with them. As busy, working adults we have to make time and reasons to get together, and while it's a bit of a pain it's so rewarding!

Photo cred

Both Gioia and Driss and Othman and I had been talking separately of going to the museum for a while, as its opening caused quite a sensation and it has gotten lots of media attention. Museums are few and far between in Morocco and it's great to see more being built! It made a lot of sense, however, to go as a foursome because of our different approaches to art. Driss and Othman are Moroccan and didn't grow up in "museum cultures" as Gioia, an Italian, and I did. As a result she and I enjoyed discussing what we saw together as the boys had fun giggling at the pieces they didn't like as they lagged behind. The four of us had some very interesting conversations within the galleries talking about different ways of considering art and delving into why they had a harder time with some of it than we did. The talk ended up being educational for us all as we learned the others' perspectives!

Photo cred

While the new museum is supposed to be focused on modern art, its new exhibition (which was created in collaboration with the Louvre and will travel there afterwards) actually displays medieval Moroccan art from the 8th to 13th centuries. This is an interesting choice and is a testament to how museums are needed here—there really isn't another establishment able to house such an exhibit. I thought the juxtaposition was apt, however. Starting with the traditional and classic works of architectural, literary and functional art downstairs and then moving to the 20th century upstairs for the second half of our visit gave us perspective on how the second grew from the first. Tradition is of paramount importance in Moroccan society and while modern and contemporary artists are almost by definition moving away from tradition, in many ways its motifs and themes creep into their works. It was also good because the boys were more interested in that first part while Gioia and I appreciated the contemporary exhibit much more, which meant that there was a little something for everyone. We all left impressed with the museum's quality, despite a few missing labels and many explanations in the first exhibit being only in Arabic—but hey we're still in Morocco after all. I thought its size and scope were perfect: meaty enough not to be disappointing but very managable at the same time. And the entrance price means it's accessible to many!

One of the modern pieces we all loved.

Having arrived in Rabat quite a bit later than we meant to, for various reasons, we stayed until the museum closed and may well have been the last visitors to leave. We then headed to the coast not far away to enjoy the sunset and have some dinner. I whipped out my camera and went to town taking pictures. I’m not often in Rabat, and enjoyed seeing different views from what’s typical in Casablanca. We admired the sea and the architecture and found some cute snails to photograph too!

Not only am I not often in Rabat, but I’m also not often ready with my camera during twilight and at night, so I made the most of the opportunity to play with the settings and experiment a bit. I took advantage of the light of the setting sun behind the clouds and later on got some fabulous night shots.

As we headed down towards a bar-restaurant right on the beach I turned around and snapped this funny photo.

Inside we ordered a bunch of appetizers to share, as we talked and laughed all together. We took a few nice pictures as we waited, then tucked into some delicious seafood.

After eating we walked back up to the car and they laughed as I stopped every 20 meters or so to take pictures, but in the end I don’t think anyone minded too much, and I was happy with the results!

The drive down wasn’t short in time but felt so, as Driss and Othman laughed and joked in the front Gioia and I shared we’re-married-to-Moroccans stories in the back. Othman and I dropped them off at home with promises to get together for dinner soon, especially as we realized we all have the same tastes in dining out, down to a favorite restaurant in common! Thanks for a lovely day, Gioia and Driss, and see you both soon!

A beautiful baby boy

Our lovely friends Jessica and Ahmed (previously featured here) welcomed their beautiful son, Noor, into the world yesterday morning! 

As soon as my Saturday classes were done we headed to the clinic where we found two tired but happy parents and a healthy, calm, and beautiful baby boy. It had been years and years since I was able to hold a newborn, so when Jessica asked me if I'd like to hold him I was over the moon. Othman and I joined the two new parents in fawning over him for a long time as we chatted with them.

As we sat around Jessica's bed I shared with them the old Braga-Henebry family saying: there are three things in the world you can never get tired of staring at. The ocean, a fire, and a baby. We all agreed at how absolutely true that is as we just looked and looked and this beautiful gift of life.

Can you get any sweeter than newborn smiles?

 
Welcome to the world little Noor!!